Joe Cowley reports Ozzie Guillen came pretty close to leaving the White Sox after his flare up in the media with Ken Williams:

Guillen had cried wolf before in discussing his shelf life as Sox manager. But this was different. For the first time, general manager Ken Williams wasn’t on his side. After a third straight loss to the Rays to close the series, Guillen questioned the makeup of his offense during a postgame rant, saying, ”I expect Kenny to do something Tuesday.” Upon hearing Guillen’s comments, Williams responded, ”It’s not a good idea to throw your boss under the bus, especially when that boss has had your back as much as I have had his.”

Recalled Guillen: ”I told [Reinsdorf], ‘Is this thing going to go in a different direction because of the comment I made? Then [expletive] it.’

”He said, ‘Come on, don’t be a child.’ I mean, I spent the day off at my house, watching all of this on TV and hearing from people, listening to what [Williams] said, and I was pissed. Once I saw how Kenny was taking it, I was even more pissed.”

Guillen spoke to Williams on the phone and explained himself.

”My context was taken the wrong way by Kenny,” he said. ”My message to the players was, ‘You don’t do this, we’ll get you out of here.’ Kenny thought I was saying it’s on him, he better do something.”

Guillen told his wife, Ibis, he wasn’t sure he would return to Chicago the next morning. He didn’t think Williams believed his story.

But he agreed to meet with Williams and Reinsdorf back in Chicago.

”By the time the meeting was over, so were the bad feelings,” he said.

Ozzie is lucky the owner loves him so much. My bet is that Williams won’t take that kind of criticism again.